Tree path 6 levels King's Pawn Game › King's Knight Opening › Normal Variation › Ruy Lopez › Berlin Defense › Ruy Lopez: Berlin Defense
- Chess Codex
- King's Pawn Game C20
- King's Knight Opening C40
- Normal Variation C44
- Ruy Lopez C60
- Berlin Defense C65
- Ruy Lopez: Berlin Defense C65 you are here
Ruy Lopez: Berlin Defense
Overview
Ruy Lopez: Berlin Defense is a variation within the Open Games family, indexed as ECO C65.
The Open Games group covers open games — classical 1.e4 e5 openings where both sides contest the centre directly with pawns.
The line arises from 7 plies — specifically the moves 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 Nf6 4. O-O.
It is a variation of Ruy Lopez: Berlin Defense, which itself descends from the root opening King's Pawn Game.
It branches into 4 notable variations — Beverwijk Variation, Fishing Pole Variation, Improved Steinitz Defense, and others.
Together the deeper variations number 27 across the full subtree.
Step through the moves on the interactive board below, review the live Lichess statistics, or play this position against Stockfish at one of six difficulty levels.
- ECO code
- C65
- Group
- Open Games (C)
- Plies
- 7
- Parent
- Ruy Lopez: Berlin Defense
- Direct variations
- 4
- Total in subtree
- 27
This overview is generated automatically from the opening's metadata. Know this line well? Write a description — submissions are reviewed before publishing.
Statistics from Lichess
4,556,918 games · White 53.4% / Draw 5.4% / Black 41.2%
| Moves | Games | W / D / B |
|---|---|---|
| Nxe4 | 1,355,396 | |
| d6 | 1,159,717 | |
| Bc5 | 1,135,886 | |
| a6 | 399,323 | |
| Be7 | 235,926 | |
| Bd6 | 94,233 | |
| Ng4 | 55,844 | |
| Nd4 | 46,527 |
Source: Lichess Opening Explorer · cached 2026-09-26 01:41:01
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Variations (4)
Show all 27 sub-variations (full subtree)
- C65 Beverwijk Variation 8-ply
- C65 Fishing Pole Variation 8-ply
- C66 Improved Steinitz Defense 8-ply
- C67 Rio Gambit Accepted 8-ply
- C66 Ruy Lopez: Berlin Defense, Closed Wolf Variation 12-ply
- C66 Ruy Lopez: Berlin Defense, Hedgehog Variation 12-ply
- C67 Ruy Lopez: Berlin Defense, l'Hermet Variation 10-ply
- C67 Ruy Lopez: Berlin Defense, Rio de Janeiro Variation 10-ply
- C67 Ruy Lopez: Berlin Defense, Rosenthal Variation 10-ply
- C65 Ruy Lopez: Classical Variation, Zukertort Gambit 9-ply
- C66 Ruy Lopez: Closed Berlin Defense, Chigorin Variation 10-ply
- C66 Ruy Lopez: Berlin Defense, Closed Bernstein Variation 13-ply
- C66 Ruy Lopez: Berlin Defense, Closed Showalter Variation 13-ply
- C67 Ruy Lopez: Berlin Defense, Cordel Variation 16-ply
- C67 Berlin Wall Defense 16-ply
- C67 Westerinen Line 14-ply
- C67 Ruy Lopez: Berlin Defense, Minckwitz Variation 11-ply
- C67 Ruy Lopez: Berlin Defense, Pillsbury Variation 17-ply
- C67 Ruy Lopez: Berlin Defense, Rio de Janeiro Variation 26-ply
- C67 Ruy Lopez: Berlin Defense, Trifunovic Variation 12-ply
- C67 Ruy Lopez: Berlin Defense, Winawer Attack 17-ply
- C67 Ruy Lopez: Berlin Defense, Zukertort Variation 17-ply
- C64 Ruy Lopez: Classical Defense, Benelux Variation 12-ply
- C67 Ruy Lopez: Open Berlin Defense, l'Hermet Variation 11-ply
- C67 Ruy Lopez: Open Berlin Defense, Showalter Variation 11-ply
- C67 Ruy Lopez: Berlin Defense, Berlin Wall 18-ply
- C64 Ruy Lopez: Classical Variation, Modern Main Line 13-ply